Against Home Rule (1912) eBook

tragic interpretation, from which the fanatic and the
place-hunter would recoil—­when too late.
The blatant publican who strangles a neighbourhood
in the toils of usury and illicit drink, and the bestial
survivor of half-forgotten murder-rings take note of
these signs. The atavism of cruelty returns.
Emboldened by Mr. Birrell’s bland acquiescence
in milder prologues to Home Rule, a new plan of campaign
is, even now, being devised, charged with sinister
consequences from which all men in 1903 trusted that
Ireland would be for ever absolved. The prospects
of Irish Agriculture under Home Rule include the return,
after a brief chapter of “hope, and energy the
child of hope,” to the old cycle of bitterness
and listlessness and despair.

A consideration of these alternatives leads to this
dilemma. If the Government concede fiscal autonomy
Land Purchase ends. If they refuse it, and Mr.
Redmond accepts a “gas-and-water” Bill,
that compromise, so accepted, will receive from Mr.
Dillon the treatment accorded to the recommendations
of the Recess Committee and of the Land Conference.
The compromise will be repudiated and the millions
already advanced for purchase will be used as a lever
to extort complete autonomy. The lever is a powerful
one. All depends upon who holds the handle.

It may be said in conclusion that the Unionist policy
of Land Purchase vindicates the Union, and that the
treatment it has received demonstrates the futility,
and the tragedy, of granting Home Rule.

XV

POSSIBLE IRISH FINANCIAL REFORMS UNDER THE UNION

BY ARTHUR WARREN SAMUELS, K.C.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL POSITION.

The best possible system for Irish financial reform
is adherence to the principles of the Act of Union.
The constitution, as settled by the Act of Union and
the Supplementary Act for the amalgamation of the
Exchequer, contemplated that each of the three Kingdoms
should contribute by “equal taxes” to
the Imperial Exchequer. “Equal taxes”
were to be those which would press upon each country
equitably in proportion to its comparative ability
to bear taxation. These taxes were to be imposed
subject to such exemptions and abatements as Scotland
and Ireland should from time to time appear to be
entitled to. If their circumstances should so
require, they should receive special consideration.

All the revenues of England, Scotland and Ireland,
wherever and however raised, when paid into the common
Exchequer, form one consolidated fund. The Act
for the consolidation of the Exchequers directs that
there shall be paid out of the common fund “indiscriminately”
under the control of Parliament all such moneys as
are required at any time and in any place for any
of the public services in England, Scotland, Ireland
or elsewhere in the Empire.[76] Such payments are
to be made without consideration of anything but necessity.
They are to be without differentiation on the ground